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Lower Siloam pool

Pool of Siloam (Hebrew: Birkhat Hashiloah‎)[1] is a
rock-cut pool on the southern slope of the City of David (believed to be the
original site of Jerusalem) now outside the walls of the Old
City to the southeast. The pool was fed by the waters of the Gihon Spring, which
were carried there by two aqueducts - the Middle Bronze Age
Channel (a 20ft deep direct cutting that was covered with rock
slabs, and dates from the Middle Bronze Age
~1800BC), and Hezekiah's Tunnel
(a curving tunnel within the bedrock, dating from the reign of King
Hezekiah ~700BC)

Contents

History

The pool is mentioned or alluded to several times in the Bible. Isaiah8:6 mentions the pool's
waters, while Isaiah 22:9 ff.
references the construction of Hezekiah's tunnel. For Christians, the pool
has additional significance as it is mentioned in the Gospel of John,
as the location to which Jesus
sent a man who had been blind from birth, as part of the act of healing him[2]; in
this narrative, the Pharisees subject the man to a trial as a
result of Jesus' actions. This Johannine account does not occur in
the Synoptic Gospels, and conversely the Gospel
of John does not include a description of the Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus[3],
merely including a brief mention of Caiaphas asking some questions[4]; it has
been argued that this Johannine narrative is a substitute for a
trial of Jesus himself[3].

A substantial remodeling of the pool was constructed in the 5th
century, under Byzantine
direction, and is said to have been built at the behest of the
Empress Aelia
Eudocia. This pool, having been somewhat abandoned and left to
ruin, partly survives to the present day; surrounded by a high wall
of stones on all sides (except for an arched entrance to Hezekiah's
tunnel - which was only rediscovered in the 19th century), the pool
is quite small, and has a modestly sized mosque next to (and partly over) it.

The lower
pool

Ancient records report that during the Second Temple period,
there was also a lower pool further down the hill than the
original one. In the Autumn of 2004, workers making excavations for
the Ir
David Foundation, for a sewer near the present-day pool
uncovered stone steps, and almost immediately Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron (prominent
archaeologists) were on the scene; it very quickly became obvious
to them that these steps were likely to have been part of the
Second Temple period pool. Excavation swiftly commenced and
confirmed the initial supposition; the find was formally announced
on August 9, 2005 and received substantial international media
attention. The pool is less than 70 yards from the edge of the
Byzantine reconstruction of the upper pool. [5][6]

This lower pool is not perfectly rectangular, but a
soft trapezoid. There
are three sets of five steps, two leading to a platform, before the
bottom is reached, and it has been suggested that the steps were
designed to accommodate various water levels. The pool is stone
lined, but underneath there is evidence of an earlier version which
was merely plastered (to help it retain water). Coins found within
this plaster date from the time of Alexander Jannaeus (104—76 BC),
while a separate collection of coins, dating from the time of the
Great Revolt (AD 66—70), were also
found.

A channel leads from the earlier pool (the upper pool)
to feed this later pool. How much of the pool and its surrounding
structures were a result of monumental construction by Herod the Great
is not yet understood (as of September 2006); nor is the
relationship of this pool to the earlier one (i.e., why it was
built when the earlier pool already existed). A portion of this
pool remains unexcavated, as the land above it is owned by a nearby
Greek Orthodox church and is occupied by an
orchard known as the King's Garden (compare Nehemiah 3:15).

As a freshwater reservoir, it would have been a major gathering
place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city.
The Gospel of John suggests that it was probably used as a mikvah
(ritual bath)[7],
although mikvah are usually much smaller in size; if the pool were
a mikvah, it would be the largest ever found, by a substantial
margin[8]. It is
thought that the current structure was originally the Shrine of
the Four Nymphs (Tetranymphon), a nymphaeum built by Hadrian during the construction
of Aelia
Capitolina in 135[9][10][11], and
mentioned in Byzantine works such as the 7th century Chronicon
Paschale; other nymphaeum built by Hadrian, such as that
at Sagalassos, have a
very similar appearance[12].
Although most Christian scholars date the Gospel of John to the end
of the first century, dates as late as the 140s have been
suggested; the latter date range would imply that the description
in the Gospel of John was written after Hadrian had built the
Nymphaeum.

^Rossner, Rena (January 26, 2006). "The once and future
city" (in English quote=They have also discovered thousands of
fish bones that, together with the bullae were found in an area
that Reich and Shukran believe to be the Shiloah Pool, used as a
ritual bath for the Temple Mount, and a tiled road which ends at
the pool and has its origins near the Temple Mount. Ostensibly,
this is the road that worshipers used to go back and forth between
the Shiloah Pool and the Temple Mount.). The Jerusalem
Post. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1137605923369&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. Retrieved November 15,
2009.

Pool of Siloam (Hebrew: בריכת השילוח‎) (Breikhat Hashiloah) is a rock-cut pool on the southern slope of the City of David, the original site of Jerusalem, located outside the walls of the Old City to the southeast. The pool was fed by the waters of the Gihon Spring, carried there by two aqueducts.

A substantial remodeling of a nearby pool, thought to be the Siloam Pool, was constructed in the 5th century, under Byzantine direction, and is said to have been built at the behest of the Empress Aelia Eudocia. This pool, having been somewhat abandoned and left to ruin, partly survives to the present day; surrounded by a high wall of stones on all sides (except for an arched entrance to Hezekiah's tunnel – which was only rediscovered in the 19th century).

The lower pool

Ancient records report that during the Second Temple period, there was a lower pool. In the Autumn of 2004, workers making excavations for the Ir David Foundation, for a sewer near the present-day pool uncovered stone steps, and almost immediately Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron (prominent archaeologists) were on the scene; it very quickly became obvious to them that these steps were likely to have been part of the Second Temple period pool. Excavation swiftly commenced and confirmed the initial supposition; the find was formally announced on August 9, 2005 and received substantial international media attention.[2][3] The pool is less than 70 yards from the edge of the Byzantine reconstruction of a pool previously thought to be the Siloam Pool. This small pool collected some of the water as it emptied there at the southern end of Hezekiah's tunnel. The water continued on through a channel into the recently discovered Pool of Siloam. The source of the water is from the Gihon Spring located at the northern end of Hezekiah's tunnel on the eastern side of the City of David. An ancient pool (Upper Pool) existed near the Gihon Spring but was no longer used after King Hezekiah redirected the waters to the western side of the city.[4]

The lower pool is not perfectly rectangular, but a soft trapezoid. There are three sets of five steps, two leading to a platform, before the bottom is reached, and it has been suggested that the steps were designed to accommodate various water levels. The pool is stone lined, but underneath there is evidence of an earlier version which was merely plastered (to help it retain water). Coins found within this plaster date from the time of Alexander Jannaeus (104—76 BC), while a separate collection of coins, dating from the time of the Great Revolt (AD 66—70), were also found.

How much of the pool and its surrounding structures were a result of monumental construction by Herod the Great is not yet understood (as of September 2006); nor is the relationship of this pool to the earlier one (i.e., why it was built when the earlier pool already existed). A portion of this pool remains unexcavated, as the land above it is owned by a nearby Greek Orthodox church and is occupied by an orchard known as the King's Garden (compare Nehemiah 3:15).

As a freshwater reservoir, it would have been a major gathering place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city. The Gospel of John suggests that it was probably used as a mikvah (ritual bath),[5] although mikvah are usually much smaller in size; if the pool were a mikvah, it would be the largest ever found, by a substantial margin.[6] It is thought that the current structure was originally the Shrine of the Four Nymphs (Tetranymphon), a nymphaeum built by Hadrian during the construction of Aelia Capitolina in 135,[7][8][9] and mentioned in Byzantine works such as the 7th century Chronicon Paschale; other nymphaeum built by Hadrian, such as that at Sagalassos, have a very similar appearance.[10]

References

^Rossner, Rena (January 26, 2006). "The once and future city" (in English quote=They have also discovered thousands of fish bones that, together with the bullae were found in an area that Reich and Shukran believe to be the Shiloah Pool, used as a ritual bath for the Temple Mount, and a tiled road which ends at the pool and has its origins near the Temple Mount. Ostensibly, this is the road that worshipers used to go back and forth between the Shiloah Pool and the Temple Mount.). The Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1137605923369&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. Retrieved November 15, 2009.

^ The City of David; revisiting early excavations; English translations of reports by Raymond Weill and L-H. Vincent/ notes and comments by Ronny Reich; edited by Hershel Shanks. Pages 197-227.